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Kristin Conrad PowellChemical Engineering DepartmentCase Study for Engineering Safety CertificateIn this Case Study, I would like to tackle the problem of legacy samples.Background of issueLegacy chemicals and samples are an issue for many University labs. This is because one important way that University labs are different from industry labs is that they have a very high turnover rate with the typical rate of a PhD being four to five years and many students not beginning research until the end of their first year. Further, labs often have many others, such as Undergraduates, Masters Students, and Graduate Students visiting from other countries, who will work in the lab for about one year. When a student graduates or leaves, an effort is usually made in good faith to clean out desks as well as laboratory drawers containing samples. Since there is such a high turnover rate, however, projects are often left ongoing to be continued by a future student. When this happens, samples are left out of necessity and sometimes become forgotten. While they began clearly and correctly labeled, the ink can become faded or smudged with time. Eventually, current students end up in situations where they are attempting to clean out a previous students drawer and do not know what they are disposing of. Risk assessmentBeing unaware of or unsure of the contents of legacy chemicals can lead to two main concerns. First, when you do not know what you are working with, it is impossible to be certain that you are taking all appropriate safety measures. Are the legacy samples being stored in the correct way (flammables must be stored in an appropriate cabinet, cyanides and acids must be stored separately, etc.)? Are you wearing the correct gloves to protect against these specific chemicals? Will the components react with any others that are used in the lab? Is it a chemical that needs to be kept in an air hood when opened? If the sample is unlabeled, students are left with making the best possible guesses based on knowledge of what chemicals are used in the lab and which projects the previous student worked on. Second, these same questions lead to difficulty in properly disposing of legacy samples. Many labs will work with the University of Florida Environmental Health and Safety Department (EH&S) to dispose of such chemicals per university policy on a drawer by drawer basis. Over years and decades, however, if legacy chemicals are ignored and pushed to the backs of drawers, it can lead to a serious problem. For example, in 2014 the University of California, Davis Chemistry Department carried out a Legacy Disposal Project in which they threw away 10,000 pounds of hazardous waste and retrained approximately 300 Department employees. CITATION Dec14 \l 1033 1 Propose a specific solution to this safety issue, an implementation plan, a systematic hazard identification mechanism to eliminate future issues with this safety concern, and a metric to track the effectiveness and success of implementation of the proposed solutionIn order to avoid legacy samples from escalating to such a point, I propose that several preventive measures be put in place.I propose that each drawer in a lab is required to keep a standardized form (similar to forms on waste bottles) that contains an up to date list of every chemical contained in a vial or sample in that drawer. Then, anyone opening that drawer can quickly see which chemicals they may come in contact with. Further, even if labels of specific samples are compromised in some way, handling and disposing of the material will be significantly safer and easier because you know for sure which set of materials you are dealing with. I propose that whenever possible, separate projects get separate drawers even if the two projects are run by the same student. By doing this, the variety of chemicals in each drawer is limited, making the Drawer Inventory Form more useful.I believe that an emphasis about legacy chemicals should be added to employee training and that existing standard operating procedures should be updated to include these measures as best practices. In order to implement this plan, this topic could also be addressed as a Safety Seminar by the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering to raise awareness and train existing students on these new safety requirements. ?Further, Drawer Inventory Forms (provided below) could be printed and delivered to each department or made available as a pdf online to be printed as needed. I propose that compliance with these policies are checked during the EH&S laboratory safety surveys and inspections, which are already required and performed annually. This would provide a mechanism that ensures that students follow the proposed plan and a metric to track the effectiveness of the proposed solution.Finally, I believe that there needs to be a continuing focus on Hazard Communication and legacy samples in the developing Student Safety Councils. BIBLIOGRAPHY x1.Decker, D. M., 2014. UCDavis Department of Chemistry: It's been a busy year. (accessed December 1, 2015).xDrawer Inventory FormChemical (include all constituents)NO ABBREVIATIONSApprox. Percentage (e.g. ?50%, ? 10%, ? 10%)Name of Researcher Using DrawerP.I.Bldg. & Room #PLEASE WRITE LEGIBLY ................
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